June 17, 2013

Moccasins on the Ground vs. Keystone XL

By Talli NaumanIn the wake of three public-school emergency preparation drills that cast Keystone XL Pipeline and uranium mining dissenters as “terrorists,” the grassroots Native American non-profit Owe Aku (Take Back the Way), announced its upcoming Moccasins on the Ground training would be held on the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation June 14-16.

The teach-in would be the latest in a series to demonstrate means of peaceful resistance to the Canadian corporate proposals, said Owe Aku founder Debra White Plume, a Lakota grandmother from Manderson. White Plume told the Native Sun News that the dissenters are not a threat, rather “The KXL and uranium mining: That is what all communities need protection from," she said.

The training in Bridger will focus “on skills, tactics, and techniques of nonviolent direct action, such as blockading heavy equipment,” in the event that the U.S. President Barack Obama approves a permit allowing the private fossil-fuel distribution project to proceed, Owe Aku International Justice Project spokesman Ken Lebsock said in a written statement.

“An organized, prepared community is our best protection if President Obama chooses to issue the KXL permit,” White Plume added.And:Lebsock emphasized that the three-day training session in Bridger would consist of workshops on strategic media, street medic training, knowing legal rights in civil disobedience, building solidarity, human rights and the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, as well as Lakota sacred teachings on water.

“Delegations are coming from the four directions to participate in this training, all people who want to learn are welcome,” says Vic Camp, organizer for Owe Aku.

Trainers also were expected to include representatives of the Great Plains Tarsands Resistance, Texas Blockade, People’s Media Project of Chicago, Protect the Sacred of Ihanktowan Nation, Christian Peace Maker Team, Lakota Media Project, Deep Green Resistance and many other organizations and individuals.Comment: In America, Indians, environmentalists, and anyone else who opposes "progress" (i.e., development) are "terrorists."